Ontario is reporting 1,373 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday and an additional 35 deaths, the highest number of fatalities recorded in a single day during the second wave of the pandemic.

The figure marks the deadliest single day of the second wave so far, surpassing the 32 fatalities reported last week on Nov. 18.

Of the latest deaths, 22 were among long-term care home residents, up from 10 deaths in those settings a day ago.

There are currently 102 long-term care homes with an active COVID-19 outbreak.

Since January, a total of 3,554 people have died from the disease in Ontario.

Most of the new cases continue to be in the Greater Toronto Area, particularly in the hot spots of Toronto and Peel.

“Locally, there are 445 new cases in Toronto, 415 in Peel and 136 in York Region,” Health Minister Christine Elliott tweeted on Wednesday.

Elsewhere in the GTA, Durham Region logged 26 cases, compared to 16 on Tuesday, and Halton recorded 30 cases, up from five a day ago.

On Tuesday, the province reported 1,009 new infections and 1,589 new cases on Monday. But yesterday the province said those numbers are inaccurate due to technical issues with data collection, resulting in an underestimate of numbers on Tuesday and an overestimate on Monday.

When averaging out new cases on Monday and Tuesday, Ontario logged 1,299 new infections on both days.

The seven-day rolling average now stands at 1,388, down from 1,411 a week ago.

According to provincial health officials, 1,476 more people recovered from the virus bringing the total number of active cases to 12,779.

To date, there have been nearly 107,900 cases of the novel coronavirus across the province since January and 91,550 recoveries.

Provincial labs processed more than 36,000 tests in the past 24 hours, up from more than 27,000 tests the previous day.

Nearly 45,000 test specimens are still under investigation.

The province’s positivity rate is now 4.7 per cent, down from 5.8 per cent on Tuesday although yesterday’s numbers are skewed due to the technical error.

Ontario’s health-care system is still coping with an increased number of COVID-19 patients in hospitals.

There were 523 COVID-19 patients in Ontario hospitals on Wednesday, compared to 534 one day ago. Of those patients, 159 are in an intensive care unit and 106 are breathing with the help of a ventilator.

The latest numbers come after Ontario’s Auditor General released a scathing report Wednesday morning saying that the chief medical officer of health and his associates “did not lead” the province’s response to the virus when the pandemic first began in March.

Bonnie Lysyk also found that Dr. David Williams and his staff were not pro-active in directing the 34 local public health units in the province.

Premier Doug Ford is expected to face questions about the report this afternoon when he makes an announcement regarding guidelines for gatherings over the holiday season.

On Monday, Toronto and Peel Region entered the grey “lockdown” zone of the province’s COVID-19 response framework for at least 28 days to reduce the spread of the virus in those hot spots.